my former sales experience come from two very different environments:
> upselling as a waitress where I had the highest sales kpis literally every month
> b2b event saas where I was a quota demon
both taught me that the most effective sales strategy is super simple:
> understand the person before pitching the product
> figure out if you can actually help them
> be honest if you cannot
> earn trust through consistency, being competent and giving a fuck
> let confidence in the product grow from confidence in the person representing it
if the only immediate value you can offer someone is friendship, or a thoughtful intro that is still valuable but it needs to be intentional and come from the heart.
if you are a good human first, the trust in what you sell follows very naturally
choosing customers that you enjoy serving is SO important; this is also something that is regurgitated over and over again in start up discourse
the reason this is so important is because your customers have to put up with your bullshit just as much as you have to put up with theirs. if the relationship between you and your customers feels engineered or purely transactional, naturally there will be at least some form of resentment or distaste that eventually emerges on one or both sides.
don't let that happen!!!